famous for centuries. To its smiling cornfields,
tanks teeming with fish, and flourishing handicrafts, must be added the diamond and gold
mines which made the name of Golkonda known
even in far-off Europe. The kingdom also possessed in Masulipatam the best anchorage in the
Bay of Bengal and the only place on the East
Coast whence ships sailed for Pegu, Siam,
Bengal, Cochin China, the Manillas, and even
Mecca and Madagascar. The forests of the
kingdom sheltered large herds of highly prized
elephants, which added to the wealth of the
king. Tobacco and the palm flourished
exceedingly, and the excise on tobacco and
toddy juice yielded a large revenue.[1]
Friction with the Imperial Government. Since his return to the Deccan in 1653, Aurangzib had frequent cause to quarrel with the king of Golkonda. The annual tribute of two lakhs of hun was always in arrears, and frequent dunning on the part of the Mughal viceroy only met with excuses and petitions for delay. The Emperor asked the Sultan to pay half his tribute in cash and the other half in elephants, of which he had a vast stable. But even this was not done. At
- ↑ This description is based on Tavernier, i. 150—158, 175, 274, Gribble's History of the Deccan, i. 269, Imperial Gazetteer, xii. 23. Adab-i-Alamgiri, 55b, 50a, 46b, 37a, 54b.